Operation Mainbrace ~ UFOs and USOs.

In chapter 17 Ruppelt reveals that even after he had left Project Blue Book and the USAF, friends in RAF intelligence kept him informed
about latest developments, on a private basis.

Another indication of the strong US influence on the Flying Saucer Working Party is the fact that their June 1951 final report was entitled
Unidentified Flying Objects. This term had been devised by Ruppelt himself, early in 1951, but was not at the time in use outside US Government
circles.

..The Flying Saucer Working Party had been dissolved in 1951 amidst a frenzy of scepticism that had clearly been fuelled by the Americans. The
response that Churchill received to his 1952 enquiry showed that the sceptics still had the upper hand within the MOD. But this was soon to
change.During the period 1952 to 1957 there were a series of UFO sightings involving the military, which forced the MOD to rethink and then reverse
its policy. These included sightings during Operation Mainbrace in September 1952 (including those at RAF Topcliffe), the West Malling incident on 3
November 1953, Flight Lieutenant Salandin’s near-collision with a UFO on 14 October 1954, the Lakenheath/Bentwaters radar/visual sightings on 13 and
14 August 1956 and the RAF West Freugh incident on 4 April 1957.

High-profile sightings such as these, together with the increasing number of reports from the general public, pushed the sceptics within MOD onto the
defensive. The Flying Saucer Working Party’s recommendation that UFO sightings should not be investigated was overturned and by the mid-Fifties two
Air Ministry Divisions were actively involved in investigating UFO sightings. The divisions concerned were S6, a civilian secretariat division on the
air staff, and DDI(Tech), a technical intelligence division. Their brief was to research and investigate the UFO phenomenon looking for evidence of
any threat to the UK.

It looks like (the initialy sceptical) Captain E. Ruppelt was slowly coming round to the reality of the UFO subject due to credible 1950's incidents
like Mainbrace, Topcliffe, Monmouth and Lakenheath -heres what he had to say about a Pentagon meeting and a destroyed recording of the minutes:

Captain Ed Ruppelt (1956):

After the Fort Monmouth, NJ, radar sightings (which started on Sept 10, 1951), the Air Force held a meeting at the Pentagon. General Cabell presided
over the meeting, and it was attended by his entire staff plus Lieutenant Cummings, Lieutenant Colonel Rosengarten,and a special representative
from Republic Aircraft Corporation. The man from Republic supposedly represented a group of top U.S. industrialists and scientists who thought
that there should be a lot more sensible answers coming from the Air Force regarding UFOs.

"Every word of the two-hour meeting was recorded on a wire recorder. The recording was so hot that it was later destroyed, but not before I had
heard it several times......it didn't exactly follow the tone of the official Air Force releases--many of the people present at the meeting weren't
as convinced that the 'hoax, hallucination, and misidentification' answer was quite as positive as the Grudge Report and subsequent press releases
made out."

British authorities have received reports from trained observers, including RAF pilots, and the Air Ministry maintains a UFO investigation
project which parallels Project Blue Book in the United states. Reuters reported one such aerial encounter on September 20, 1952: "A flying saucer entered the eight-nation Baltic area maneuver headquarters that an unidentifiable silver circular object had been sighted 15,000
feet above the airfield. The object, which appeared five miles behind a Meteor jet fighter (piloted by Lt. John W. Kilburn), maintained a slow forward
speed before descending in a swinging pendulum motion. Then it began a rotary motion about its own axis and accelerated at an incredible speed in a
westerly direction but later turned southeast. It was seen by RAF officers and men on the airfield."

Another RAF pilot encountered a UFO October 4, 1954. Flight Lt. J. R. Salandin of the 604th Fighter Squadron, flying a Meteor jet out of North Weald,
Essex, nearly collided head-on with a huge, metallic-appearing object. The UFO was shaped like two saucers pressed together, one inverted on top of
the other. At the last second, it flipped to one side and streaked past a tremendous speed. Two round UFO's had been sighted speeding between two
other Meteor jets in the vincinity just before Lt. Salandin's sighting.

Dr David Clarke goes into more detail about the Topcliffe UFO sightings during Operation Mainbrace:

The Topcliffe Incident

With the debate ongoing, events were to take another unexpected turn when a fresh series of sightings occurred during a major NATO exercise in Europe,
Operation Mainbrace.

The most dramatic was reported by a group of Shackleton aircrew who saw a circular silver object above the airfield at RAF Topcliffe, North Yorkshire,
on the afternoon of 19 September 1952. A report made to Topcliffe’s commanding officer by one of the men, Flight Lieutenant John Kilburn of 269
Squadron, can be found among the Fighter Command papers preserved at the National Archives.

In this Kilburn said he was standing on the airfield with four other Shackleton aircrew watching a Meteor fighter descending:

‘The Meteor was at approximately 5,000 feet and approaching from the east. Flt Lt Paris suddenly noticed a white object in the sky at a
height between ten and twenty thousand feet some five miles astern of the Meteor. The object was silver in colour and circular in shape, it appeared
to be travelling at a much slower speed than the Meteor but was on a similar course. It maintained the slow forward speed for a few seconds before
commencing to descend, swinging in a pendular motion during descent similar to a falling sycamore leaf. This was at first thought to be a parachute or
engine cowling. The Meteor, meanwhile, turned towards Dishforth and the object, while continuing its descent, appeared to follow suit. After a
further few seconds, the object stopped its pendulous motion and its descent, and began to rotate on its own axis. Suddenly it accelerated at an
incredible speed towards the west turning onto a south easterly heading before disappearing. All this occurred in a matter of fifteen to twenty
seconds. The acceleration was in excess of that of a shooting star. I have never seen such a phenomenon before. The movements of the object were not
identifiable with anything I have seen in the air and the rate of acceleration was unbelievable."

Further reading about the history of UFO sightings aboard the FDR, the Office of Naval Intelligence's role in UFO research and Operation
Mainbrace:

UFOs and the USS FDR:

..In 1950 the "revolt of the Admiralsö led to the deployment of nuclear weapons on naval ships. The Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the
first aircraft carriers to deploy Mark-3 nuclear weapons. The FDR's UFO experiences started when the vessel operationally began to carry nuclear
weapons. The FDRÆs voyages became the object of a strange aerial reconnaissance by the UFO that is exceptional in naval experience.

The preoccupation by the UFO to the FDR's voyages indicates a direct vulnerability to nuclear weapons and their mobility. This vulnerability appears
to be so considerable that the phenomenon compromised its usually secretive and hidden existence in our domain to monitor the FDR's voyages at the
risk of exposure. It is this vulnerability to nuclear weapons that is the greatest indicator that links the phenomenon to the physical world and
indicates that somewhere on the planet, in some unperceived domain, another intelligence shares the world with humanity. This diagnostic clue is
central to any forensic investigation of the UFO phenomenon. Again a marine theme links the phenomenon's presence to environmental rather then
extraterrestrial association.

The FDR's case history of UFO surveillance has been well documented by Chet Grusinsky who while serving as a seaman on the FDR observed a glowing
cigar like object with a row of windows approach the FDR. According to Grusinsky, "It was close enough you could see a row of windows. You could see
through the windows, and there were figures. My impression was they were not human beings. It took off quick and I could feel the heat on my skin."
The UFO's interest in the FDR was extensive in the Atlantic. The FDR was under surveillance by UFOs during cruises to Brazil, and Guantanamo, Cuba.
UFOs followed the carrier from Mayport, Florida, to England, and into the Mediterranean Sea. The FDR's homeport in Mayport, Florida became the object
of an increase in UFO sightings when the carrier returned from sea operations. In the Atlantic off the FDR's homeport in Mayport, Florida, UFOs were
frequently seen, as if they were on station waiting for the carrier to begin a cruise. The reason for the FDR's Atlantic UFO escort remains a
mystery, but Chester Grusinsky feels the escort certainly was an indicator that the UFO phenomenon had a keen interest in nuclear weapons and nuclear
weapon mobility.

During the FDR's participation in the Operation Mainbrace maneuvers in the North Sea in 1952 UFOs over flew and followed the fleet for several days.
It was these overflights in the North Sea that caused the RAF to officially recognize the UFO reality. There are no records of the FDR's UFO
sightings appearing in the ships log. It is interesting that several UFO researchers have recently reported that U. S. Naval vessel logs appear to
have been tampered with. Researchers who are following up on UFO sightings reported from naval vessels are finding the ships logs have been edited and
rewritten without any mention of the sightings.

First of all, let me congratulate you on a great research thread Karl12!

1952 was a very ominous year , indeed for UFO sighting's during "Operation: Main Brace". The WH had it's own encounters as well. They, (TPTB) at
the time had made as statement to the regards of such thing's existing as a higher intelligent life form, they would have to literally "Park" their
UFOs in the WH lawn. Well, that almost happened as well in 1952.

I have problems with putting "Play option" videos here on ATS, so, I will also put the link location for you as well if YT direct link doesn't
work.

Originally posted by Allred5923
..They, (TPTB) at the time had made as statement to the regards of such thing's existing as a higher intelligent life form, they would have to
literally "Park" their UFOs in the WH lawn. Well, that almost happened as well in 1952.

Hey Alfred, many thanks for the post and video link -the 1952 Washington flyovers where indeed yet another very interesting UFO incidents for that
year and I don´t know if you´ve seen it but Gazrok has authored a mighty fine thread on the case below - I did find it interesting that apparently
the U.S. Government, the CIA, Project Bluebook, the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Washington radar operators all seemingly rejected the 'temperature
inversion' theory which, in reality, was just an off the cuff remark by Captain Roy James who hadn't even participated in the investigation.

Earlier this year, I looked into the reported sighting by Danish Lieutenant Commander Schmidt Jensen and other crew-members. It was described
by Dick Hallof NICAP in the 2nd paragraph of
this article.

Everywhere I looked repeated the same lines and it began to look like one of those made-up accounts that we see all the time in ufology. I contacted
Dr David Clarke who suggested Ole Henningsen of the Danish ufology group
SUFOI.

By chance, Mr Henningsen had been investigating the case in the Danish Defence Library in Copenhagen just a couple of weeks prior to my e-mail. He
confirmed that Schmidt Jensen was a real person and had made the report.

September 13--The Danish destroyer Willemoes, participating in the manoeuvres, was north of Bornholm Island. During the night, Lieutenant
Commander Schmidt Jensen and several members of the crew saw an unidentified object, triangular in shape, which moved at high speed toward the
southeast. The object emitted a bluish glow. Commander Jensen estimated the speed at over 900 mph.

Some bloody great research there mate, have got about two minutes left on the internet clock but will certainly take time to read through the links
and websites now you´ve confirmed Lieutenant Commander Schmidt Jensen actualy existed.

Got to love the ´triangular objects over the sea´ accounts, it seems there´s quite a few out there and Isaac also did some great research on
this one from 1967.

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